Young Folks' History of Rome eBook

Burrhus died about the same time, and Seneca alone
could not restrain the Emperor from his foolish vanity.
He would descend into the arena of the great amphitheatre
and sing to the lyre his own compositions; and he
showed off his charioteering in the circus before the
whole assembled city, letting no one go away till
the performance was over. It very much shocked
the patricians, but the mob were delighted, and he
chiefly cared for their praises. He was building
a huge palace, called the Golden House because of
its splendid decorations; and, needing money, he caused
accusations to be got up against all the richer men
that he might have their hoards.

[Illustration: NERO.]

A terrible fire broke out in Rome, which raged for
six days, and entirely destroyed fourteen quarters
of the city. While it was burning, Nero, full
of excitement, stood watching it, and sang to his lyre
the description of the burning of Troy. A report
therefore arose that he had actually caused the fire
for the amusement of watching it; and to put this
out of men’s minds he accused the Christians.
The Christian faith had begun to be known in Rome
during the last reign, and it was to Nero, as Caesar,
that St. Paul had appealed. He had spent two years
in a hired house of his own at Rome, and thus had
been in the guard-room of the Praetorians, but he
was released after being tried at “Caesar’s
judgment-seat,” and remained at large until this
sudden outburst which caused the first persecution.
Then he was taken at Nicopolis, and St. Peter at Rome,
and they were thrown into the Mamertine dungeon.
Rome counts St. Peter as her first bishop. On
the 29th of June, A.D. 66, both suffered; St. Paul,
as a Roman citizen, being beheaded with the sword;
St. Peter crucified, with his head, by his own desire,
downwards. Many others suffered at the same time,
some being thrown to the beasts, while others were
wrapped in cloths covered with pitch, and slowly burnt
to light the games in the Emperor’s gardens.
At last the people were shocked, and cried out for
these horrors to end. And Nero, who cared for
the people, turned his hatred and cruelty against
men of higher class whose fate they heeded less.
So common was it to have a message advising a man
to put himself to death rather than be sentenced,
that every one had studied easy ways of dying.
Nero’s old tutor, Seneca, felt his tyranny unbearable,
and had joined in a plot for overthrowing him, but
it was found out, and Seneca had to die by his own
hand. The way he chose, and his wife too for his
sake, was to open their veins, get into a warm bath,
and bleed to death.

Nero made a journey to Greece, and showed off at Olympus
and the Isthmus, at the same time robbing the Greek
cities of numbers of their best statues and reliefs
to adorn his Golden House; for the Romans had no original
art—­they could only imitate the Greeks and
employ Greek artists. But danger was closing
in on Nero. Such an Emperor could be endured
no longer, and the generals of the armies in the provinces
began to threaten him, they not being smitten dumb
and helpless as every one at Rome seemed to be.